New problem! When driving in a straight line, all is good. I am now entering a curve, I move the wheel in the direction I need to go. The money pit starts to move but then hangs up, just a tad, the releases with a bit of a whump. I can feel it in the column and almost hear it. I suspect a tight u joint in the column or a tight bearing on the struts. It does this in both directions. Anyone been there, done that already?

 

Could be the U-Joint on the lower steering shaft like you suspect. I replaced mine about 3 years ago due to stiff steering in both directions and not re-centering itself. Didn't have any "Whump" with mine. Your U-Joint may have a SIEZED point causing the "WHUMP" as it crosses that point. I would try spraying the U-Joint with some PB BLASTER to see if it goes away for a day or two. That's what I did to find mine. Also the rust all over the U-Jount from the bearing being trashed also helped pin point the problem.

 

It's not the U joints on the column. I took the shaft right out and all is good. How would I know if the rack was on the way out?

 

Just my two cents, but i just recently did a power steering flush at 130,000km(83000mi) and the stuff came out like tar. It took 2 full bottles, (2 litres or 2quarts) to do this till it started coming clean. I'd suspect after talking to others, if you haven't done this yet, start here. My wife didn't notice the extra steering effort she was playing with til after i flushed it, and said how much easier it was to operate afterwards.

 

I suppose this can't hurt! What is the procedure for doing the flush?

 

Seems when the tranny boys dropped the subframe to rebuild the slushbox, they did not torque the rack bolts properly. Stopped the noise but could only get one tight without dropping the exhaust. I'll save that for another day!
__________________